1062 
THE NEW-YORKER 
September 20, 
iTHE MAKING OF HORNLESS RACES. 
Part II. 
That there was a time when there 
were no horned cattle is really a scien¬ 
tific fact. The original polled bovine, or 
species was described by Prof. Ruti- 
xneyer, of Basle, who gave more atten¬ 
tion to the study of the origin of our live 
stock than any other authority, perhaps; 
and his description will be found in 
Schmidt’s “Mammalia,” one of the Inter¬ 
national Scientific Series easily available 
in any library; and it is as follows: “In 
the Lower Miocene and Eocene, the Rum¬ 
inants are represented by animals abso¬ 
lutely without horn cores on the frontal 
bones . . .” This species was called 
by Rutimeyer Bos planifrons—flat head¬ 
ed ; and it was the first of all bovines to 
appear on this earth of ours—it led the 
bovine procession that was brought up 
by Bos primigenius and Bos longifrons, 
which are pointed to as the ancestors of 
our present races, but which themselves 
evolved from Bos planifrons—the “polled 
ox” of Rutimeyer, as Prof. Primrose Mc¬ 
Connell calls it, in his great work “Agri¬ 
cultural Geology,” which deals interest¬ 
ingly on the whole subject of the origin 
of the polled character. He remarks that 
the “original ungulates were polled or 
‘bald’ ” and concludes his remarks thus: 
“The evolution of polled cattle in recent 
geological or prehistoric ages is a little 
bit of a mystery. The earliest fossil re¬ 
mains show polled animals (Bos plani¬ 
frons), both male and female. Polled 
breeds must have evolved in compara¬ 
tively recent times—though they are a 
reversion to an early type—and ‘fossil’ 
skulls of this kind must be looked upon 
with suspicion.” It is interesting to re¬ 
cord the fact that the view believed to 
have been first enunciated by the present 
writer, has been so fully confirmed and 
supported by an independent authority— 
for the writer was pretty well ridiculed 
for promulgating such an opinion—that 
the polled were the primitive type, and 
that the polled of to-day are but rever¬ 
sions to that type. 
There seems to be no doubt that polled 
cattle existed among all horned breeds 
and so common, in historical times, that 
they could always be found by those who 
thought them worthy of notice; while 
wherever they were common, that very 
commonness made the character of 
indifference to other writers, as was the 
case with Skene-Keith, the author of the 
“Survey of the County of Aberdeen” 
(1805), and of Dr. Anderson, of Monk- 
shill, in the same county, both of whom 
had they been alert would have given 
careful descriptions of the polled cattle 
that from other historical documents 
were known to exist in the northeast of 
Scotland, as well as in places near Edin¬ 
burgh and Oban, remains of polled 
skulls of the Roman and Cave periods 
being there found; as also in Ireland. 
Sir Richard Owen pointed out that 
“all cattle are born without horns.” In¬ 
deed, tracing the young animal back to 
its third embryo month, we find at that 
point no trace of horns. And this is 
the permanent condition of cattle that 
are born really polled. As the life of the 
individual recapitulates the life of the 
race, this of course at once concedes that 
the polled character must have been the 
primitive condition; and that it is now 
“dominant” to the horned condition, is 
surely satisfactory proof that it was the 
more primitive, or older condition, Boyd- 
Dawkins, observe, believed the horned 
character to be “a sexual one, first ap¬ 
pearing in the males and then later trans¬ 
ferred to the females,” which also con¬ 
cedes the priority of the polled; but this 
also suggests that it was the horned 
that was the acquired character, and not 
the polled. If acquired, in the proper 
sense, that meant an addition to the 
primitive type of head. The ox following 
the evloution of the deer tribe appeared 
first as hornless, and subsequently as 
small, and last as long-horned. But the 
great horned type appeared, in all its 
glory, to be the primitive type (to those 
who became impressed by it), as the 
huge IJrus, or aurochs of the Ilercynian 
forests described by Csesar as roaming 
the dense forests—if such a term could 
be applied to the wastes—of primitive 
Europe. And it is this Urus type that 
seems to have been the backbone of Brit¬ 
ain’s best races, being either absorbed 
in or absorbing the lesser Celtic short¬ 
horn, Bos longifrons, and appearing in 
the wild white cattle, and the larger 
polled races and even leaving traces in 
the dainty Ayrshire, whose horn is de¬ 
cidedly of the Urus type. 
Hence there seems to be no reasonable 
doubt that the polled type is the older 
and more primitive; so that the appear¬ 
ance of polled specimens can be looked 
for in any horned breed; and if they ap¬ 
pear are quite natural and normal—and 
may be regarded as being simply rever¬ 
sions to the primitive type. Any such 
specimens, bred to others of the same 
source, would, therefore, be expected to 
breed true, and be recognized as per¬ 
fectly pure. And if the horns could be 
bred olf all the horned breeds in this 
way, the breeder would gain immensely. 
A good beginning has been made, in Jer¬ 
sey, Hereford and Holstein ; but it may 
be a long while ere breeders generally 
will be induced to give up the horns of 
their favorites, their loyalty to whom 
would hardly permit them doing so! But 
which shall be the next breed to report 
its pqlled independence? 
Professor W. J. Spillman expresses 
the same idea as to the sources of polled 
Avhen he says that the cattle of the pres¬ 
ent day descend from three main varie¬ 
ties—the long-horned, short or medium- 
horned, and polled; and he has in 
“Science,” April 6, 1906, given the 
breeder specific instructions as to how to 
establish a race of polled cattle, begun 
at first hand, as by Handley, Gammon 
and Stevenson. This article was quoted 
from in the series of “Lessons in the 
New Breeding” appearing at present in 
The Field Illustrated, New York (July 
26). It should be read by those engaged 
in the raising of polled varieties. Prof. 
Castle, of Harvard, remarks (“Heredity,” 
page 102), “In cattle the capacity to de¬ 
velop horn is a semi-potent unit-charac¬ 
ter, behaving as a recessive (weak) in 
crosses, developing only ‘scurs.’ 
It is impossible to be certain that in a 
hornless race the character horns has 
been wholly lost. It. may merely have 
fallen so low in potency that under ordi¬ 
nary conditions it produces no visible 
structures. The occasional occurrence of 
an imperfectly horned animal as a sport 
within a hornless race need not, then, oc¬ 
casion surprise.” 
With these views on polled cattle the 
breeder becomes abreast of the latest 
scientific knowledge concerning the char¬ 
acter which is so much sought. 
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